It's almost as if the cost for college is staggeringly disproportional to the value of the degree when compared to the actual salaries of the vast majority of jobs people with most majors will be able to get, thus rendering students tragically unable to repay in any timely fashion after living expenses make a dent.

I'm working on my degree, but i'm doing it piecemeal as I can only afford 1-2 classes at a time.

Something needs to be done about for-profit colleges. They account for 50% of defaults and only 10% of all colleges, plus their graduation rate is only 20%. Government loans should not be going to these colleges.

sweetmelissa31:Something needs to be done about for-profit colleges. They account for 50% of defaults and only 10% of all colleges, plus their graduation rate is only 20%. Government loans should not be going to these colleges.

THIS. And "tuition equalization grants" that for-profit universities get from states is like a voucher system that siphons much-needed dollars away from real universities.

Yeah, those scumbags at Sallie Mae are tenacious. My wife's paperwork got mishandled during the last year of her residency and this little prick was calling ten times a day and just wouldn't take "it was a departmental screw-up and you know it because the hospital acknowledged it to you and is sending the proper paperwork in" and I finally let him have it with a sort of Steve Buscemi in "Fargo" "You're lord of your little booth" diatribe.

That puppeteering guild might be the most stinging indictment of Occupy Wall Street yet.

At one of Arts and Culture's meetings-held adjacent to 60 Wall Street, at a quieter public-private indoor park that's also the atrium of Deutsche Bank-it dawned on Joe: "I have to build as many giant puppets as I can to help this thing out-people love puppets!"

sigdiamond2000:Dancin_In_Anson: But it seemed like such a good idea at the time!

That puppeteering guild might be the most stinging indictment of Occupy Wall Street yet.

At one of Arts and Culture's meetings-held adjacent to 60 Wall Street, at a quieter public-private indoor park that's also the atrium of Deutsche Bank-it dawned on Joe: "I have to build as many giant puppets as I can to help this thing out-people love puppets!"

Jesus.

Your tax dollars are re-investing in the puppetry arts. People love puppets.

That pic is faker than Olympic boxing officiating. Just look at the artifacts around the letters, their alignment compared to the cardboard they're "written" upon, and the fact that the letters which show up more than once - the lower-case a, i and g, for instance - are "written" exactly the same each instance they appear.

That pic is faker than Olympic boxing officiating. Just look at the artifacts around the letters, their alignment compared to the cardboard they're "written" upon, and the fact that the letters which show up more than once - the lower-case a, i and g, for instance - are "written" exactly the same each instance they appear.

That's some fine pixel spotting there, Earl. I bet you score big on all those "Spot the Differences" photo quizes. *facepalm"

That pic is faker than Olympic boxing officiating. Just look at the artifacts around the letters, their alignment compared to the cardboard they're "written" upon, and the fact that the letters which show up more than once - the lower-case a, i and g, for instance - are "written" exactly the same each instance they appear.

You can tell just by looking at the pixels, and you've seen a few 'shops in your time...

Guarantee agencies are paid a default aversion fee, equal to 1 percent of the loan balance, if they prevent a borrower from going into default. But the same agencies get paid much higher fees for collecting or rehabilitating a defaulted loan.

sweetmelissa31:Something needs to be done about for-profit colleges. They account for 50% of defaults and only 10% of all colleges, plus their graduation rate is only 20%. Government loans should not be going to these colleges.

That's trickier than it sounds. For-profits target a different demographic than public and non-profit private post secondary schools. They also include vocational schools. All in all, they serve a "poorer" section of America, and the for-profits argue that government help is necessary for these people to have a chance at upward mobility.As a misanthropist, my opinion is that if someone can't even get into BigState-U, that doesn't speak very well for his future prospects anyway. Maybe he should get used to living in the lower classes. But when I think of people more abstractly, without reference to any particular individuals, I accept the argument that everyone deserves a chance to try to better himself. So I think we should help the "students". If the people selling a better future fail to deliver it for, oh, 75% or so of their customers, then we take them out back and shoot them.

TheDumbBlonde:sigdiamond2000: Dancin_In_Anson: But it seemed like such a good idea at the time!

That puppeteering guild might be the most stinging indictment of Occupy Wall Street yet.

At one of Arts and Culture's meetings-held adjacent to 60 Wall Street, at a quieter public-private indoor park that's also the atrium of Deutsche Bank-it dawned on Joe: "I have to build as many giant puppets as I can to help this thing out-people love puppets!"

Jesus.

Your tax dollars are re-investing in the puppetry arts. People love puppets.

sigdiamond2000:TheDumbBlonde: sigdiamond2000: Dancin_In_Anson: But it seemed like such a good idea at the time!

That puppeteering guild might be the most stinging indictment of Occupy Wall Street yet.

At one of Arts and Culture's meetings-held adjacent to 60 Wall Street, at a quieter public-private indoor park that's also the atrium of Deutsche Bank-it dawned on Joe: "I have to build as many giant puppets as I can to help this thing out-people love puppets!"

Jesus.

Your tax dollars are re-investing in the puppetry arts. People love puppets.

I found a picture of the puppetmaster in question:

[img833.imageshack.us image 640x480]

Man, to have a talent like that go to waste...

What a tragedy.

Well, I feel better about my investment in the arts, and you should too.

Listen, the student loan crisis IS THE REASON I have my government mandated Obama hobo. Do you realize how helpful he's been around the house? And all I have to do is give him a pack of beef jerky and a bottle of Thunderbird 3-4 times a week and he's happy.

sweetmelissa31:Something needs to be done about for-profit colleges. They account for 50% of defaults and only 10% of all colleges, plus their graduation rate is only 20%. Government loans should not be going to these colleges.

what_now:sweetmelissa31: Something needs to be done about for-profit colleges. They account for 50% of defaults and only 10% of all colleges, plus their graduation rate is only 20%. Government loans should not be going to these colleges.

This right here.

While for-profit colleges are the majority of the problem, $40,000 a year tuition at private colleges and spiraling public college costs are a problem as well.

I dropped out of Sesame Street - I can't read. I accrued a $7B net worth making the sorts of products that help people who can't read - lots of picture driven stuff. I patented rounded corners, because these types of people are the kind who hurt themselves on 90 degree angles. Then I got cancer a couple times. It didn't end well.

Don't know about the U.S., but here in Canada I worked for a student loan company (not collections) that helped students with the applications and servicing of the debt. I was only there 6 months before being laid off, but the training was for 6 weeks. Learning all the various government (provincial and federal) regulations as well as the chartered banks' policies. What a nightmare of red tape.

Thankfully I never applied for student loans for university - paid my own way.

GAT_00:what_now: sweetmelissa31: Something needs to be done about for-profit colleges. They account for 50% of defaults and only 10% of all colleges, plus their graduation rate is only 20%. Government loans should not be going to these colleges.

This right here.

While for-profit colleges are the majority of the problem, $40,000 a year tuition at private colleges and spiraling public college costs are a problem as well.

Oh, absolutely.

But the problem here isn't FEDERAL student loans, it's private loans.

If you have a FEDERAL student loan, you can make payments based on your income. If there's any loan left after 20 years (10 if you work in public service) the loan is forgiven, in some cases tax free.

Yeah the Direct (aka stafford) Loan isn't the issue. It's the private loans. IMO, they should be much, much more difficult to get.

Not because fewer students should go to college, but because colleges (including the one I'm currently sitting in) should be more affordable. And if that means that the dorms shouldn't look like 5 star hotels and the gym shouldn't look like an Olympic training facility, well so be it.

I have students who graduate from college, actually GET a job, and then realize that can't afford an apartment anywhere as near as the dorm they were living in.

just of out curiosity I looked at their enrollment numbers, and wikipedia says University of Phoenix had like 600,000 people in 2010 and ITT tech has 80,000... those numbers put those default rates in better perspective.

just of out curiosity I looked at their enrollment numbers, and wikipedia says University of Phoenix had like 600,000 people in 2010 and ITT tech has 80,000... those numbers put those default rates in better perspective.

Oh you people! With your "math" and "facts" and such! I need a villain!

Headso:just of out curiosity I looked at their enrollment numbers, and wikipedia says University of Phoenix had like 600,000 people in 2010 and ITT tech has 80,000... those numbers put those default rates in better perspective.

that's a 17% default rate for University of Phoenix and an 11% default rate for ITT.

The national cohort default rate is 8.8%, and the university I work for got very very concerned when our default rate spiked up to 1.3%